Israeli Ministry of Transportation ordered all carriers heading for Israel to tighten security measures in a bid to avoid potential terror attack, in fear of a possible Hezbollah retaliation for its chief officer's death, local Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Friday.
According to the report, Israel has recently issued an instruction to all airlines flying into the Jewish state to tighten security measures in order to minimize the risk of a terrorist attack on flights to Israel.
The instruction came following growing concerns that Hezbollah might try to launch a retaliatory attack against Israel, which the group held responsible for the killing of its military leader ImadMugniyah.
Danny Shenar, head of security in the Transportation Ministry, has ordered all foreign and local airlines heading for Israel to require passengers to remain seated half an hour before landing, when planes approach a distance of 180 miles from the country's shores. Until now, passengers have only been instructed to return to their seats at a distance of some 90 miles from Israel, or 15 minutes before landing.
Moreover, airlines have also been asked to instruct their pilots to seal the cockpit 30 minutes before landing, so as not to allow terrorists to take control of the plane.
Israeli Transportation Ministry officials explained that the new decree has been issued in light of fears that terrorists might succeed in infiltrating a plane, and attempt to take control over the aircraft only in the final stage of the flight, after it has reached Israeli airspace.
A hijacking at this stage would make it difficult for security forces to respond in time to curb the attack, the report said.
"It takes several minutes to deploy fighter jets towards a hijacked plane," an aviation security expert explained, "therefore, the final stage of the flight is extremely crucial."
Source: Xinhua
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